Boomers face a greater risk of depression and suicide

Robin Williams wasn’t alone. The 63-year-old actor and comedian’s death this week, which police reports Tuesday characterized as a suicide, can be seen as part of an unsettling trend among Americans of his generation—a sharp increase in suicide rates, often in connection with severe depression.

Williams was last seen Sunday night, and his body was found on Monday at his home in California; he had recently battled clinical depression, his agent and family announced. But Williams’s fellow boomers in general—and boomer men in particular—are at a greater risk of depression and suicide than younger and older people, studies show. “Traditionally, suicide prevention efforts have been focused mostly on youths and older adults, but recent evidence suggests that there have been substantial increases in suicide rates among middle-aged adults in the U.S.,” according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The age-adjusted suicide rate for adults aged 35 to 64 years in the U.S. increased from 1999 to 2010 by a statistically significant amount, according to the CDC, rising 28% to 17.6 for every 100,000 people. And as boomers aged, some of their age cohorts saw both the sharpest increases in suicide rates and the highest rates overall.

Among men, the greatest increases were among those aged 50 to 54 (up 49% from 1999 to 2010, to 30.7 per 100,000) and for those aged 55 to 59 (up 48% to 30 per 100,000 people). Among women, suicide rates also increased with age, and the largest percentage increase in suicide rate was observed among women aged 60 to 64 years (up 60% to 7 per 100,000 from 1999 to 2010).

Robin Williams a Longtime Friend to U.S. Troops

(2:31)

Comedian and actor Robin Williams spent more than a decade entertaining U.S. troops overseas. Here are some clips from his performances, as well as his comments on supporting military men and women. Photo: Department of Defense

Economic factors may have played a role in these increases, as older workers often had a harder time recovering from the Great Recession. There is a statistically significant relationship between suicide and unemployment among middle-aged Americans (and apparently not among other age groups), according to a study published in the September 2014 issue of Social Science and Medicine, a peer-reviewed academic journal.

While boomer-age workers were generally less likely than younger workers to lose their jobs during the recession, those who did tended to stay out of work much longer. Increases among those aged 45 to 64 have been the primary factor in the overall increase in U.S. suicides since 2005, says Julie Phillips, associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University, and co-author of the study.

Other research has found connections between a stressful economy and depression. Sudden loss of wealth in the stock market significantly increased use of antidepressants, according to a paper published last year in the Journal of Health Economics. The loss of $50,000 of non-housing wealth increased the likelihood of feeling depressed by 8%. “They were not transitioning to [longer-term] clinical depression, so it was possibly an overreaction to bad news,” says Lauren Hersch Nicholas, assistant professor of health economics at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the study.

The life-transition of retirement can be difficult, even for those who’ve been economically successful. A meaningful career becomes more important as people age and those who felt they took the path of least resistance can have bitter regrets near retirement, says Steve Langerud, a workplace consultant based in Grinnell, Iowa. “Following a path that’s not deeply engaging, even when you succeed, can lead to dissatisfaction and, in extreme cases, depression,” he says. “This is a theme among my boomer clients—‘I went to the right schools, I got the right job, I bought the right things and I’m still not happy.’”

(Some researchers cite other cultural factors that put boomers at high risk of suicide, including a lack of religiosity compared to earlier generations and a greater likelihood of being divorced. For more, see this article in The Wall Street Journal.)

Of course, aging itself can play a role in midlife depression. Older people are more likely to suffer from physical illness and pain, Phillips says, which can lead to them feeling like a burden; they’re also more likely to have weaker social ties due to widowhood or retirement. What’s more, studies show that men are less likely to seek and receive help for depression than women, and consequently, their depression—often a contributing factor in suicide—goes undiagnosed, Phillips adds.

Whether due to insufficient savings or fears of isolation, boomers are showing a reluctance to retire, according to a Gallup survey published in January. While the average age at which U.S. retirees say they retired has risen steadily from 57 years of age to 61 in the past two decades, nearly half of working boomers (49%) say they don’t expect to retire until they are 66 or older, and one in 10 predict they will never retire. “The good news is it’s never too late,” Langerud says. “As we live healthier and longer lives it’s easy to leave dissatisfaction behind, and craft a new life of meaning, significance, and service.”

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